Posts by Category: Mobile Tech

Wireless, contactless, touchless, whatever you want to call it, the new convenience tech is starting to take off in a big way. In London, contactless cards now account for around 100,000 transactions a day on London transport services, and they’re starting to really take off in stores with most stores now featuring ‘tap & pay’ terminals of one sort or another. But with the convenience, as with everything else, comes risk.

We’ve talked about the very cool IFTTT (if this, then that) service before, with its cool mix of automated recipes which you can use to automate parts of your life. The idea is you can set up a recipe to, say, send an alert to your phone if snow is coming, based on a reading of the weather reports, and once the recipe is set up, it just runs automatically every day for you. Neat. Now the company is offering…

There’s a brand new budget Android smartphone coming along at the beginning of next month, and it’s pretty fancy. Not only does it have full 4G/LTE built in, as well as dual SIM, dual Standby, but it’s one of the first of its type to feature fingerprint security as standard, which is something usually reserved for much more expensive handsets. And did we mention the price?

The smartphone market is heading for a huge shock, as the traditional brands find themselves under increasing pressure from some very slick Chinese products which are making their way westwards. The big names like HTC and Samsung are already suffering from slower sales and declining profits, and this trend is going to continue, as lower priced Chinese manufacturers pulverize the established brands on price and features. This new superphone from Honor is a classic example of what we mean.

You can’t turn a corner nowadays without stumbling over yet another set of wireless headphones. Thanks to the recent improvements in Bluetooth 4.0, it really does look like the days of the cable tied models are slowly coming to an end. Which will please lots of people, from gamers to runners and beyond. We’ve just tested out one of the newest entrants to market, and found a worthy contender for the ‘Best of…’ title.

Every 3.5 seconds someone in the US loses their cell phone. That’s 30 billion dollars worth a year. Which is a lot of popcorn. Of course it’s not just losing, but dropping, mugging and more which adds even more to the tally. And what do you do when your precious iPhone is gone? Dig out that rank old handset from 2 years ago and wait for your plan to renew? Well now there’s a rather cool alternative of sorts.

Wearables are the way of the future according to something like 95% of science fiction. They can monitor your fitness levels or just relay information (like the latest tweets) to you. Handy if you want to stay connected. The Mota Smartring is in the latter category.

Moleskine is the best notebook that money can buy according to moleskin fans. Of course those fans include famous authors and artists so the company has to be doing something right. Moleskin has teamed up with one of the better productivity apps to create the Moleksine Evernote Smart Notebook to help creators bring their handwritten notes to the digital world.

The clever e-ink technology, which uses minimal power draw to display mono images on small screens, has really started to gain traction in the market. Obviously most e-readers like the Kindle use it, but it’s also making its way to smaller devices, like phones. The Yotaphone 2, which we reviewed a while ago, is an example of a clever implementation of the tech, but now you can have the same kind of twin screen functionality for your existing phone. Clever.

Don’t know about you, but there’s been a fair few times when I’ve been to some place, a store or a service or something like that, and had a bad experience which I wish I could warn people about. Sure you can leave a review, but it’s a bit of a hassle. What you really need at times like that is a way to warn people who might be visiting that location. Now there’s an app which could help with…

Tangled earbud cords are annoying. Just, really annoying. We may try to roll them neatly before putting them back into a pocket or a bag but that never lasts for long. It’s like there are gnomes or something living in our pockets that delight in tangling our earbuds. The Spoolee is an easy and quick solution to the problem.

Your phone and tablet are disgusting. Let’s just be honest, they’re gross because humans are germ factories. It’s ok, it’s just the way things are. Wiping your grubby phone off on your pant leg may help clear up the screen, but jeans aren’t antibacterial. The Mist Screen Cleaner and Microfiber Sponge is the cleaning solution for your devices.

Food is pretty important stuff we think you’ll agree. What a shame then, that we don’t really know enough about what we eat. Like the detailed stuff. Well now there’s a great new initiative using the crowd to create a free online database that anyone can use and add to, to make sure we have the facts we need.

Question: When is a USB cable not a USB cable? Answer: When it’s a WiFi router hotspot. You’ve got to love tech sometimes, especially when unpredictable things happen. Who would have thought that someone would come up with a standard microUSB charge and data sync cable which would also do something quite so cool?

Love ‘em or loathe ‘em, it looks as though selfies – taking photos of yourself in interesting locations – are here to stay for the long term. It’s not that they’re particularly interesting, it’s just that they’re really fun to do, especially with your friends and family. Lots of grinning involved.